Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Playhouse Square


From the waning days of big time vaudeville, August 31, 1924. A few years after this the Palace would become a film house. The Keith chain would become part of RKO following a merger with the Orpheum circuit, and RCA's Photophone sound division.

Playhouse Square


At Loew's Stillman and the Allen August 31, 1924. The Stillman was next the the Hotel Statler at 1111 Euclid, and closed in July 1963. The lobby remains as an entrance to the hotel garage. The Allen as we all know is still standing and has recently been renovated.

Monday, August 29, 2011

Roaring Brook


Roaring Brook, under the Nay Aug Park footbridge, yesterday afternoon.

Roaring Brook


Roaring Brook, looking upstream from Nay Aug Park footbridge, yesterday afternoon.

Roaring Brook


Roaring Brook, looking downstream from Nay Aug Park footbridge, yesterday afternoon.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Nay Aug Falls


Nay Aug Falls this afternoon.

Roaring Brook


Roaring Brook at the Laurel Line Bridge.

Step Falls


Step Falls from the Harrison Avenue Bridge this afternoon.

Friday, August 26, 2011

Lackawanna Railroad


Canadian National 3254 eastbound along Ridge Row in Scranton last Saturday morning.

Electric City Trolley


Philadelphia Suburban 76 arriving at Steamtown last Saturday morning.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Scranton Rock and Roll


Frankie Avalon at Masonic Temple Friday, August 22, 1958, with Clyde Stacy, Monarch's Hi-Fi and the Crewnecks. For some reason the Crewnecks is always spelled as two words, but a member of the group said it is one word. That's concert promoters for you.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Playhouse Square
























Another autobiographical theatre story.

Sometime in late June 1973 Russell and I decided to hang out all night at the theatres. Since Brel had opened in April we'd always be hearing these wild stories about what was going on when we weren't there. So one Friday night we just stayed behind after Brel. I'm not exactly sure of the actual order of events, but we went over to the Royal Castle on Euclid, by 17th, around midnight. We're in there and there are these two weird guys, probably on some kind of drugs. They're both acting pretty weird. One guy has a plate he filled with catsup, and then he's putting a face on it with mustard. He's saying "he he he that's Satan." then he's sprinkling salt on it saying "Satan like's pussy." The guy working there isn't terribly amused. (I remembered seeing that guy over in the Royal Castle at 13th & Chester the previous fall, when we were skipping a lot of school.) He's pretty annoyed, and he's like "what the fuck are you guys doing?" and he flipped the plate onto the one guys shirt. The one weird guy is standing up going "oh wow man...look at my shirt..." By then the Royal Castle dude was around the counter throwing these guys onto the street. So we leave a few minutes later and walk around the corner onto 17th. Lurking in the shadow is the condiment shirt guy ( who would become known to us as "He" because of the frequent retelling of the story later) and he's like "hey man where you guys going?" For what ever reasons we didn't want to go back to the Palace, and then not let this guy in and have some sort of weird confrontation, so we walk down 17th with this guy. We end up on the next block between Chester and Payne, where I believe Moe's bar is still located, and there was the Don Juan Chinese place and some nondescript storefronts. So He opens the door to one of these storefronts, some Chinese guy chases us away, and we end up in Dodge Court, behind the State & Ohio. Parked there is Chuck Fleming’s car, and He decides to start rifling through it. So we get him away from the car somehow, fearing Fleming's wrath. We get to behind the Ohio stage, and I jump up and grab onto that ladder that came down the back wall of the Ohio, saying lets go this way. I think that may have been the only time I ever achieved that feat. Russell can't jump quite that high, but I scamper up onto the roof of the Ohio, and come back down through the theatre and back out onto the alley between the Ohio and the Buckley Building Garage. Meanwhile, Russell takes He down the alley and back up into those fire escape alleys behind the Allen and loses him back there. So we ended up meeting back up in the alley and got back inside.

It wouldn't have been too long after that, half hour, hour, I don't recall now, but we got into the wine room. It was that room in the basement of the State which had been next to Cecil Ryder’s shop in the Loew days, and which later became Kennedy’s. I took a metal grate off the bottom of the door, reached up and unlocked it. I replaced the grate and we selected a couple bottles, then we crept back around the block to the Palace. That passageway between the State lobby and the Palace auditorium wasn't built yet. Needless to say we picked wine with the finesse of any typical 16 year old, and we couldn't drink whatever it was that we got. We abandoned the partially consumed bottles in the Palace alleyway. I don't remember what other kind of trouble we may have gotten into that night, but those were the two main events.

The next day we go back to the State to start our usual routine of emptying trash and filling ice buckets etc. Fleming is super pissed, someone had rifled through his car the previous night. We played stupid and shared his outrage that such a thing could occur. I don't know if we ever told him the story of He. But we did repeat the story endlessly over the next few weeks. I seem to recall Russell seeing He a few weeks or maybe months later.


Monday, August 22, 2011

Lackawanna Railraod


Another view of Lackawanna 664. This was the trip to Carbondale on Saturday morning. Unfortunately we were unable to purchase tickets to this. It'll be a cold day in hell before I take anything my "contact person" at LHVA tells me at face value.

Lackawanna Railraod


Lackawanna 664 passing the Mattes Street Tower on Saturday morning.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Nay Aug Falls


Nay Aug Falls this morning.

Nay Aug Park


"Swimming Go" sign at Nay Aug Gorge. children are so clever here in Scranton.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Lackawanna Railroad


Lackawanna 664 yesterday morning behind Steamtown mall.

Lackawanna Railroad


Delaware - Lackawanna 2452 with a small cut of grain cars passing Lackawanna Station yesterday morning.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Lackawanna Railroad


A closer look at CN 3254.

Lackawanna Railroad


Canadian National 3254 passing University of Scranton on the Lackawanna mainline last Saturday morning.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Nay Aug Park


Looking upstream along Roaring Brook from the footbridge.

Nay Aug Park


Looking across the footbridge.

Nay Aug Park


Footbridge in Nay Aug Park.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Nay Aug Falls


Nay Aug Falls this morning. Not quite as intense as last Sunday morning.

Nay Aug Park


Fake turtles at the Nay Aug Park Zoo.

Friday, August 12, 2011

Cleveland


East 55th & Euclid, 1943. Looking east down Euclid. The bridge is the Pennsylvania Railroad line to Pittsburgh.

Cleveland

West 25th & Denison, looking south towards the Pearl Road bridge, 1951, photographer unknown.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Nay Aug Falls


Nay Aug Falls was roaring pretty good this morning after yesterday's torrential rain.

Step Falls


Step Falls as viewed from the Harrison Avenue Bridge this morning.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

First Friday Scranton

A horse & carriage in front of St. Luke's Church on Wyoming Avenue at last night's First Friday.

First Friday Scranton


A vendor in front of the Comerford Theatre.

First Friday Scranton


We stopped by First Friday last evening. A scene along Wyoming Avenue in front of the Comerford Theatre.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Dickson Manufacturing Co.


The Dickson Manufacturing Company building on Penn Avenue as seen from the D&H tracks. The tower of this building is seen in the opening credits of the hit NBC show "The Office."

Delaware & Hudson


Remains of a phone box along the D&H tracks, near the bridge over Penn Avenue.

Delaware & Hudson


D&H bridge over Penn Avenue in Scranton. The building on the left is the Dickson Manufacturing Co.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Lackawanna 663-664


A closer look at 663-664 on Saturday morning.

Lackawanna 663-664


Lackawanna 664 and 663 lead an eastbound excursion past the University of Scranton on Saturday morning.